Intentional Growth

If your sales team is just calling and "checking in" with your customers and waiting for things to get back to "normal", and you need to kick your revenue generation back into gear, then this episode is for you. What You Will Learn in Today’s Podcast Interview: Analyze where opportunity is for revenue Discuss how to put short-term sales plans into place Examine quota and compensation adjustments Review how to effectively make adjustments Revise sales process(es) and messaging How COVID has changed the sales landscape The right and wrong way to check in with customers and clients in the current environment How to determine how customers’ needs have change using the ladder of inference How to remain flexible in order to adapt to new sales and revenue generating opportunities How to find the markets that have been impacted COVID The importance of telling employees at all levels the “why” and “how” of any significant changes in your got to market strategy Strategies to model, reinforce and celebrate new behavior of employees that corresponds with short-term goals Why the value creation mindset should play a role in today’s decisions on short-term issues Podcast Summary: Customer needs, traditional selling strategies, and business challenges have all changed.In this episode, Gary Braun the founder of the strategic sales consulting firm Pivotal Advisors, clearly explains the power of doing more than simply calling to "check in" on customers. Gary dives into concrete strategies and approaches that your sales team should do right now to not just maintain and keep the lights on but accelerate your growth and capitalize on market opportunities. For many companies, the changes in staffing, realignment of territories, and modified goals and metrics accompany the transformation of our day-to-day lives.Gary shares Pivotal’s three-step process to adjusting your sale approach in this new business environment— and explains how it is meant to recharge your growth. Analyze Realign Execute Using this framework, you can use these challenging times as an opportunity to identify new avenues to support existing clients and to seek out new clients with different needs you can now fulfill.Gary and I talk about how to develop new data-driven strategies to support current clients, and the importance of keeping your company’s long-term plans and growth in mind. Get Your Intentional Growth™ Score: Go to our website. Go to ARKONA.IO/Assessment or text 66866 to take a two-minute, twenty question assessment that we’ve created to help you shift your mindset and focus on value-creating activities that will help you get what you want with your business.   About the Guest: Gary is a founder and co-owner of Pivotal Advisors. He works with organizations to help them scale and grow and helps them define where growth is coming from, helps them hire and/or develop the sales team, identify ideal clients and markets, and leverage true differentiators (even in commodity markets). He also implements sales processes, targets specific KPIs, increases activity, creates and applies sales compensation plans, and develops sales leadership skills.Previous Experience Before Pivotal Advisors, Gary worked for 20+ years as a salesperson and sales leader (in various industries, products / services and size companies). One of the experiences Gary pulls from is his track record of helping scale a company from $1MM to $400MM in revenue where he learned how to implement repeatable systems and process. Quotes: 13:39 – “Whenever there’s a lot of change like that, there’s a lot of opportunity to do something.” – Gary Braun 16:50 – “[The customer’s] world has changed. You have to understand their new world.” – Gary Braun 41:43 – “We don’t let our short term tactics ruin our long term strategies.” – Gary Braun, on making changes in a company. 54:00 – “They have to understand that we’re all in this together. They have to understand the problem and that we’re all marching in the same direction and how to do that..” – Gary Braun Links and Resources: Gary Braun, LinkedIn Pivotal Advisors, website Gary Braun, email: gbraun@pivotaladvisors.com Gary Braun, Twitter Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp! You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, on my LinkedIn.

Chris accomplished what many entrepreneurs strive too and is willing to share what strategies grew value, his successes along the way and what he would do different if he were to do it again. What You Will Learn in Today’s Podcast Interview: How Chris grew his company to over $100M in revenue without debt Why Chris was able to get all his cash up front when selling to Private Equity The difference between enterprise value, equity value and net proceeds How Chris shifted his mindset away from only top line revenue to long term value creation How to identify the key value drivers in your business How to reduce client concentration and why it pays off How one’s willingness to evolve and stay relevant are keys to success Why passion can get you started but value growth education will get you to the top The importance of differentiation and how to make your company invaluable to your customers Why betting on yourself as an entrepreneur can have the biggest ROI Where to spend your time and energy educating yourself as a business owner The biggest differences between Strategic Buyers and Financial Buyers Chris’s grueling experience going through due diligence when selling Why a culture of trust and integrity is hard to quantify in the valuation (it’s not on the spreadsheet) Podcast Summary: In today’s episode, Chris Carlson shares how his passion for driving snow mobiles let him to starting Sportech—the company’s original product protects the lights of snow mobiles from snow in order to see clearly while driving. Chris tell his story about how he adapted the business to match the changes in the market, invested time and resources to further his own knowledge—including joining a peer group, understanding value growth, investment banking, and implementing EOS—and what he learned from his experience selling Sportech to private equity. Chris went on to grow the company to over 100 million dollars in annual revenue, diversifying their products and target markets along the way. After successfully growing the company over 15 years, Chris sold Sportech to a private equity firm in November 2019 and received all of his cash up front.I’m excited about today’s episode because Chris’s story clearly explains how investing in yourself as an entrepreneur can lead to long-term success, as well as illustrating the many aspects of selling a business he wishes he knew at the time. We get to benefit from Chris’s experience as a business owner who accomplished what many people strive to achieve, while also recognizing that even incredibly successful companies and owners can benefit from understanding value growth with your end goals in mind, the difference between financial and strategic buyers, and the key components needed to approach a sale. Go to ARKONA.IO/Assessment or text 66866 to take a two-minute, twenty question assessment that we’ve created to help you shift your mindset and focus on value-creating activities that will help you get what you want with your business. Sign Up For The Mastering Your Cash Flow Video Series We created a video series called Mastering Your Cash Flow that helps you get clear visibility into your cash flow and build a financial strategy that allows you to capitalize on the future opportunities that come from the crisis  What You'll Learn in the Mastering Your Cash Flow Video Series How to Build a 13-Week Cash Flow Statement: Get clarity on where and how your cash is coming from and being used and then build a plan to manage it wisely. Learn how to build a 13-week cash flow statement from the top CFOs in the marketplace. How to Build and Revise Your 2020/21 Budget and Forecast: 2020 and 2021 are most likely not going to look like you thought they did back when you built your budget and forecast. Learn how to model out different scenarios using forecasting best practices. Create a Strategic Plan to Grow Company Value: Increase the chances you come out of the gates and capitalize on future opportunities when our new "normal" sets in. Start thinking about how you can create a strategic plan to grow a valuable business that gives you choices. About the Guest: Chris Carlson was the CEO and Owner of Sportech (a leader in OEM thermoformed plastic products). The company specializes in the design, development, and production of premium products and accessories for numerous markets including power sports. He bootstrapped that business out of personal necessity since he was a snowmobile enthusiast. Chris grew up in an entrepreneurial family, and hopes to raise his kids in that type of environment as well. Quotes: 11:55 – “It became fairly obvious that if we didn’t change, if we didn’t start working on products and developing products for ATVs and motorcycles and other areas (where I had passion but not equal to what I had for snowmobiles), had we not done that, our business would have died.” – Chris Carlson 19:45 – “It started with snowmobiles and I thought it had to be about snowmobiles but in the end it was really about value creation through design.” – Chris Carlson 34:00 – “I’m going to run this thing like it’s for sale, even though it’s not. Because it’s the right thing to do.” – Chris Carlson Links and Resources: Chris Carlson email: ccarlson@envisioncompany.com Envision Company: website Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp! You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, on my LinkedIn.

Today I’m talking with returning guest and the CEO of Prairie Capital, Dave Deihl. Prairie Capital is one of the leading ESOP, mergers and acquisitions, and business valuations firms in the country. Dave and his firm have eight locations across the country, perform about 400 valuations annually, and are major leaders in the ESOP community. In this episode, Dave will share his thoughts and opinions on business valuations now and in the near future, what uncertainty can do to an economy and business valuations, and how all of this compares to third-party sale evaluations.  What You Will Learn in Today’s Podcast Interview: Thoughts Dave on the economy based on 350+ annual valuations Will COVID-19 be an add back in valuations or not? The difference between financial valuations vs. strategic valuations The practice of valuations and ESOPs and what the pandemic has done to it The major concerns that people are looking at as they’re looking at the ability of a company to borrow Dave’s thoughts on the current state of uncertainty when forecasting business revenues When is the lack of consumer spending going to catch up to us? The building blocks that Dave recommends working on right now to build a healthy business How uncertainty in our economy, banking, and the American consumer impacts business valuations The impact of COVID-19 on financing merger & acquisition transactions What Dave thinks the M&A market will look like in the next six to twelve months What the word “intentional” mean to Dave Podcast Summary: COVID, the nationwide quarantine, social unrest and supply chain issues are easy-to-understand examples of how unknowns directly impact business valuations. So far 2020 has really taught us what truly sustainable, predictable, and transferable cash flow looks like. My guest today is Dave Diehl, CEO of Prairie Capital  – one of the nation’s leading ESOP and M&A firms.   Dave and his firm have 8 locations across the country and perform over 400 business valuations annually, many of which are repeat ESOP valuations. Dave is the perfect guest to talk on this topic because of his company’s exposure to a huge variety of industries and hundreds of annual valuations. They have a real live look into how COVID is impacting balance sheets and future forecasts. ​​Dave also shares with me some great insights about how 3rd party strategic buyers, Private Equity Firms and banks who finance transactions are viewing the market and how that is impacting deal structures and valuations.    This is a great episode to help shift your mindset to rebuild or refocus on strategies that will de-risk your future cash flows, grow value and build a business that gives you options down the road.   Check out our Intentional Growth Assessment on our website. Go to ARKONA.IO/Assessment or text 66866 to take a two-minute, twenty question assessment that we’ve created to help you shift your mindset and focus on value-creating activities that will help you get what you want with your business. Sign Up For The Mastering Your Cash Flow Video Series We created a video series called Mastering Your Cash Flow that helps you get clear visibility into your cash flow and build a financial strategy that allows you to capitalize on the future opportunities that come from the crisis  What You'll Learn in the Mastering Your Cash Flow Video Series How to Build a 13-Week Cash Flow Statement: Get clarity on where and how your cash is coming from and being used and then build a plan to manage it wisely. Learn how to build a 13-week cash flow statement from the top CFOs in the marketplace. How to Build and Revise Your 2020/21 Budget and Forecast: 2020 and 2021 are most likely not going to look like you thought they did back when you built your budget and forecast. Learn how to model out different scenarios using forecasting best practices. Create a Strategic Plan to Grow Company Value: Increase the chances you come out of the gates and capitalize on future opportunities when our new "normal" sets in. Start thinking about how you can create a strategic plan to grow a valuable business that gives you choices.  About the Guest: Dave Diehl is the Chief Executive Officer of Prairie Capital Advisors. Dave provides closely-held businesses with a complete understanding of the best available options for their ownership transition needs. He expertly executes projects for mergers and acquisitions (M&A), management buyouts (MBO), Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), estate planning and other corporate finance purposes. Dave serves as a trusted advisor to a diverse range of clients nationwide delivering highly strategic consultation. With extensive end-to-end management experience and a focus on his clients’ success, Dave helps ensure an exceptional ownership transition experience. Dave is a CFA Charterholder and is on the board of directors of two companies – a manufacturer of plastic parts and a financial consulting firm. He is also a frequent speaker in forums around the country on topics including ownership transition, valuation, capital management, and business sale. He is also a past chair of the Advisory Committee on Valuation with the ESOP Association. Quotes: 09:22 – “I will say too though, that one of the greatest difficulties right now is really picking a date because the volatility in the stock market right now has been pretty significant.” – Dave Diehl, on business valuations 22:29 – “When you’re buying equity, you’re buying the future. So what we need to do is look at what the future prospects of the business are.” – Dave Diehl 50:23 – “[For] the entrepreneur who goes and builds a business, you want as many alternatives as you can. Cause there’s aspects of a deal that are purely financial related and there are other aspects of a deal that are related to more emotional issues.” – Dave Diehl Links and Resources: Prairie Capital Advisors Dave Diehl contact page The COVID-19 Pandemic: Potential M&A Transaction Issues and the Way Forward Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp! You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, on my LinkedIn.

The 200th episode of the “Life After Business” podcast is a transformation into the first episode of “The Intentional Growth” podcast. Today, my business partner, Pat Hobby, interviews me and asks me about the name change, what I’ve learned over these past 199 interviews, and a little about my background. This episode is all about being authentic and real. I have no intention of stopping the momentum that this podcast has gained over the last four years. I’ll continue to have great guests, interesting and relevant topics, and I’m hoping to have an even bigger reach in the future. I have a deep passion to learn (maybe to a fault) and love to hear people’s stories from all walks of life. I hope you continue alongside me in my journey to learn how we can use businesses to change the world and lives we touch. What You Will Learn in Today’s Podcast Interview: What I've learned and the big takeaways from 199 interviews My journey and experience trying to live what I've learned My original goals with the “Life After Business’s podcast Why “The Intentional Growth” Podcast name change?  What intentional growth means to me (in business and life) The consequences of instant gratification as a business owner What ARKONA does to help business owners What I think this pandemic is going to do to business owners’ mindsets The biggest lessons I have learned in the last four years of doing this podcast Main takeaway/Why I Liked the Episode: With everything that is going on right now, I seriously considered postponing the 200th episode and name change. However, I believe what we need right now more than ever in our country and society is intentionality. ​This is even more true for business owners and leaders.  After four years and 199 episodes ​​I decided to change the name of the show to better reflect what I’ve learned.  Owning a business is not about waiting to have a “life after the business”. It is about intentionally engineering the life you want around the business (whatever that might look like from a role and ownership perspective).   The most successful (using my definition) and happy business owners knew who they were, what they wanted from their business and why (credit to Bo Burlingham’s interview #16).  They were intentional.  The only way to be more intentional is to learn; to learn more about what is possible and the different ways your journey as a business owner can unfold.   The clearer you are about what you want (because you’ve fully explored the options and possibilities) the more at peace you can be with the plan you have and they choices you make.  When you get knocked off track, thrown a curve ball and have to reassess. It becomes easy to get back on track because you can recalibrate your strategies and actions against your long-term plan.  I have a deep passion to learn (maybe to a fault) and love to hear people’s stories from all walks of life. I hope you continue alongside me in my journey to learn how we can use businesses to change the world and lives we touch. Thanks for being a listener and I hope you enjoy this episode with more of my thoughts like I’ve written above. I’ll leave you with this quote: “It's said that a wise person learns from his mistakes. A wiser one learns from others' mistakes. But the wisest person of all learns from others's successes.” ― John C. Maxwell Quotes: 02:50 – “So I was like, ‘Idea? Done. Committed! I didn’t realize I had to learn 17 softwares. I had to learn a mixing device. This was all before there was plug-and-play with the USB mic.” – Ryan Tansom, about starting the podcast 04:02 – “And I haven’t gone back and listened to the first episode that I did, which is fifteen minutes and it took me three weeks to record fifteen minutes.” – Ryan Tansom, about the LAB first episode 08:35 – “That’s so common among business owners; they don’t understand what their options are. Sometimes they don’t have many options because of the decisions they’ve made.” – Pat Hobby 42:20 – “The last thing I want is for anyone to wake up in three to four years and say, ‘Crap. I’m tired. Something happened. I don’t want this. My energy is gone. The industry is changed,’ and not have any choices.” – Ryan Tansom Links and Resources: Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp! You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, on my LinkedIn.

This is officially the last episode of this podcast under the name of “Life After Business.” Starting with the next episode, this podcast will be renamed, “Intentional Growth” and it will be all about how to grow the value of your company with the end in mind. In today’s episode, I’ll be talking with entrepreneur and author, Mike Lee. We’ll be talking about how to reinvent yourself in times of transition and how to find your life’s purpose. What is your purpose and what are your definitions of success in your key roles as a human being? These descriptions represent your requirements. That way when a new opportunity does arise you have something to evaluate it against. Without this intentional work you are at risk of taking the next thing that comes your way and missing the opportunity of a lifetime: you risk not fulfilling your true God-given purpose. What You Will Learn in Today's Podcast Interview: Mike’s personal and professional backstory The importance of purpose and how to write our life purpose statement Live life backward from your obituary How to get unstuck if you are not feeling good about the work you are doing How to identify if your ego has crept into your role as a leader Why retirement is a false and misleading mindset (especially for entrepreneurs) How to lean into tough times, use your creative thinking and find your life’s purpose How to get over yourself and fix your situation How to look deeper into the meaning of your role as an owner and leader Life is a balancing act and there is no perfect situation How to determine where your true identity resides How to avoid the frying pan all together, and get intentional before something bad happens What is false retirement? Overcoming stress and fear in order to become intentional Main takeaway / Why I liked the episode – Mike is the perfect guest to talk about intentional professional rebirth and the intentional journey of building something. With COVID as our catalyst, now is the time to define what you want out of your business and what your true purpose in life is. Remember that next week’s episode is going to be the first of “Intentional Growth.” Check out our Intentional Growth Assessment on our website. Go to ARKONA.IO/Assessment or text 66866 to take a two-minute, twenty question assessment that we’ve created to help you shift your mindset and focus on value-creating activities that will help you get what you want with your business. Sign Up For The Mastering Your Cash Flow Video Series We created a video series called Mastering Your Cash Flow that helps you get clear visibility into your cash flow and build a financial strategy that allows you to capitalize on the future opportunities that come from the crisis What You'll Learn in the Mastering Your Cash Flow Video Series How to Build a 13-Week Cash Flow Statement: Get clarity on where and how your cash is coming from and being used and then build a plan to manage it wisely. Learn how to build a 13-week cash flow statement from the top CFOs in the marketplace. How to Build and Revise Your 2020/21 Budget and Forecast: 2020 and 2021 are most likely not going to look like you thought they did back when you built your budget and forecast. Learn how to model out different scenarios using forecasting best practices. Create a Strategic Plan to Grow Company Value: Increase the chances you come out of the gates and capitalize on future opportunities when our new "normal" sets in. Start thinking about how you can create a strategic plan to grow a valuable business that gives you choices.  About the guest – Mike has started and sold his own consulting company and spent nearly three decades of experience leading business transformations for Fortune 500 companies and Public Sector businesses, he brings deep expertise to strategic planning, finance and HR function development, process improvement, and enterprise resource planning systems. As the former president of North Highland, a global consulting firm with more than 1,200 professionals in twenty-five cities around the world, Mike was a key driver of North Highland’s international expansion and Cordence Worldwide partnerships. He joined North Highland in 2003 and played an instrumental role in the growth of the company from $40M in revenue to over $400M in 2015.​​Throughout his career, Mike has managed cost efficiency programs, product development, shared services and over 50 successful merger integration engagements. His industry experience includes the financial services, media, life sciences, retail, manufacturing, distribution, and utilities sectors.  Quotes:   13:37 – “Instead of going out and finding a job, I need to articulate what it is I should be doing with my life.” – Mike Lee 18:00 – “It was really important to me to write it in a way that anybody would want to read it.” – Mike Lee 19:32 – “Until things get hot, or stressful, or tough, you’re not really willing to change. You’re not willing to change your business. You’re not willing to change what you’re doing personally. But when things get hot, you get creative.” – Mike Lee 45:51 – “I think that false retirement mindset is part of what has hurt so many people in these last couple generations that ‘retire’ and typically don’t live that long cause they’re not fulfilled and busy and happy.” – Mike Lee 16:56 – “Until you sit down and intentionally say, ‘This is what I want for my life and my legacy and all these different things,’ things are just going to happen to you.” – Ryan Tansom Links and Resources: Mike Lee’s email: mike.g.lee@theguidedjourneybook.com The Guided Journey Book website Pointb official website The Guided Journey: Finding Faith, Purpose, and Joy in Life, by Mike G. Lee Finish Big: How Great Entrepreneurs Exit their Companies on Top, by Bo Burlingham Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems, by Duflo Esther and Banerjee Abhijit Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp! You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, on my LinkedIn.

On today’s podcast, I’m talking with Lloyd Wolf. We’re talking about how he took his freelance IT company and turned it into a full-time IT service company. Not only did this take talent and know-how, but it also involved a change in his mindset. We also get into how a peer group helped him focus on the right things, how he shifted his mindset from annual profit to EBITDA and value creation, and how and when he realized that he “made it”. We are entering a new normal with Post COVID but the guest on the show today has lived through various business models, recessions and he was still able to eventually get what he wanted from the business. Lloyd was VERY intentional with his strategies and where he was spending his time, energy and money. It’s official, I’ll be changing the name of this podcast from the Life After Business Podcast to The Intentional Growth Podcast. We’ll be launching the change on the 200th episode. It has been a huge decision for me because, after all these years, I’ve grown as an individual as I’ve learned about valuations, value growth, even more about business, the economy, just tons of personal and professional growth. My original and current desire for my listeners is for you to be able to get all the information you need in order to make your own decisions so you can choose your own adventures. That comes down to being intentional.   What You Will Learn In Today's Podcast Interview: Our definition of a successful entrepreneurial journey How to shift your mindset from being an accidental entrepreneur to an Intentional entrepreneur The 3 things most important things to help you get intentional and successfully get what he wanted out of and exit How Lloyd used CEO Peer Groups as a way to level up his game What happens after you shift your mindset away from solving for annual profit to solving for long term value creation How to remove yourself from the day to day of the business Ways to calculate your financial freedom number WHILE you own the company The difference between enterprise value and net proceeds Why different buyers want different things How to analyze the motives of the buyer against your personal drivers and financial targets How to create a “deal package” even if you don’t plan to sell for years What to do say when you get those phone calls and someone wants to “offer you a ton of money”   Main takeaway: I believe you can get what you want from your business on all fronts. It’s going to take hard work but--I promise you--it’s worth it. Go to ARKONA.IO/Assessment or text 66866 to take a two-minute, twenty question assessment that we’ve created to help you shift your mindset and focus on value-creating activities that will help you get what you want with your business. Sign Up For The Mastering Your Cash Flow Video Series We created a video series called Mastering Your Cash Flow that helps you get clear visibility into your cash flow and build a financial strategy that allows you to capitalize on the future opportunities that come from the crisis   What You'll Learn in the Mastering Your Cash Flow Video Series How to Build a 13-Week Cash Flow Statement: Get clarity on where and how your cash is coming from and being used and then build a plan to manage it wisely. Learn how to build a 13-week cash flow statement from the top CFOs in the marketplace. How to Build and Revise Your 2020/21 Budget and Forecast: 2020 and 2021 are most likely not going to look like you thought they did back when you built your budget and forecast. Learn how to model out different scenarios using forecasting best practices. Create a Strategic Plan to Grow Company Value: Increase the chances you come out of the gates and capitalize on future opportunities when our new "normal" sets in. Start thinking about how you can create a strategic plan to grow a valuable business that gives you choices.   Quotes: 17:36 – “I was blessed to have been introduced to Arlin Sorenson in the 2010 time-frame and Arlin had put together what (at the time) was known as the H.T.G. Peer Groups. The Heartland Technologies Groups.” – Lloyd Wolf 21:00 – “Prior to the peer groups, there was really no one that could hold me accountable, right? If I had goals or aspirations, I kept them to myself, mostly-you know, for the most part. Some I shared with the staff, but not the deepest darkest secret ones.” – Lloyd Wolf 72:46 – “EOS is a proven set of tools and so I’m so comfortable with it and it worked for me (and it’s worked for thousands of other businesses) that I feel confident that I can play the role of the teacher, a facilitator, and a coach.” – Lloyd Wolf 25:00 – “Within the peer group we talked about goals for the quarter so just being intentional. What’s the most thing that I say, that I need to get done next quarter? And then focusing on that over the quarter and then being held accountable at the end of the quarter.” – Lloyd Wolf   Links and Resources: Lloyd Wolf, LinkedIn Achieve Business Services Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp! You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, on my LinkedIn.

Today we’re going to be talking to Alex Chausovsky from ITR Economics, which is a world-renown Economist forecasting and consulting company which works with some of the top mid-market companies and is heavily involved in nationwide CEO Peer Groups like Vistage using their data. A year and a half ago I had him on the show to discuss their short and long -term economic forecast. One of ITR Economics’ main theses has been a slight downturn in the early 2020’s and then a great depression in 2030. Since I had him on, we’ve had a worldwide pandemic that has decimated our global economy. A lot of the things we discussed in the first interview like the demographic shifts and some of the variables that go into their 2030 great depression forecast are still relevant. I figured it was time to get him back on the show to explain how our current situation impacts their forecasts and what they think the future holds.  In today’s episode because you’ll learn – About Alex Chausovsky and his background The leading indicators to track and measure the health of the economy How deep and how long the economic pain will be Will experience a V-shaped or U-shaped recovery? The implications of the Federal Reserve printing money How corporate and consumer debt affects the recovery period ITR Economics forecast for the rest of 2020/21 How the pandemic impacts ITR’s 2030 prediction What ITR’s forecast is on the job recovery The 90% economy How are new normal is impacting valuations Their forecast on unemployment in 2021 What companies can be doing right now to weather the storm and set themselves up for the long term How to view rates of change What ITR is using to predict how the virus is Alex’s view on the potential to have inflation How consumer’s behavior will impact our recovery  Main takeaway / Why I liked the episode – One of the best things you can be doing is figuring out how to build that bridge between now and the future, over the course of the next 18 months. That all starts with education. There are two ways we hope to help you get clear, get intentional, and get going:   1.)    Mastering Your Cash Flow – Video Series How To Build A 13-Week Cash Flow Statement Get clarity on where and how your cash is coming from and being used and then build a plan to manage it wisely. Learn how to build a 13-week cash flow statement from the top CFOs in the marketplace. How to Build And Revise Your 2020/21 Budget And Forecast 2020 and 2021 are most likely not going to look like you thought they did back when you built your budget and forecast. Learn how to model out different scenarios using forecasting best practices. c. Create A Strategic Plan to Grow Company Value Increase the chances you come out of the gates and capitalize on the future opportunities when our new "normal" sets in. Start thinking about how you can create a strategic plan to grow a valuable business that gives you choices.  2.)    Intentional Growth™ Digital Course Because of the current situation, Pat and I are working on a digital video course on the Intentional Growth™ 5 Principles. It will be the best of our material that we have in our 2-day Boot Camps that normally costs 5k for $295. Text the word Intentional to 66866 to get on the waiting list of the digital course. We’ll teach you how to build a valuable company with the end in mind using our 5 Intentional Growth™. In principle #2 - You’ll learn everything about how companies are valued, deal structures and how to calculate net proceeds (this helps if you want to know how much your company is worth, looking to buy a company or eventually want to sell) In principle #3 - You’ll learn how the 5 major exit options (Internal, ESOPs, PE and more) work & the implications of each Principle #4 - you’ll learn how to increase your multiple by de-risking your company and building value for the long-term build a financial model that ties to your strategic plan and what it takes to grow value for the long term.  About Alex – Alex Chausovsky is an accomplished Speaker and the Director of Speaking Services at ITR Economics. He is a highly experienced market researcher and analyst with more than a decade of expertise in subjects that include macroeconomics, industrial manufacturing, automation,and advanced technology trends. He has consulted and advised companies throughout the U.S., Europe, Brazil, China and Japan for the last fifteen years and has been featured on NPR, the BBC, and in the Wall Street Journal. His extensive consulting expertise is greatly valued by management teams of companies both large and small. ITR Economics’ clients rely on his input when developing strategic plans for the future, as he helps them plan for risk conditions and find areas of opportunity. Quotes: 12:16 – “We had been expecting a slowdown in the US economic cycle the last time we discussed this.” – Alex Chausovsky 21:00 – “Clamp the wound before you can start addressing the patient, so that is sensible. But it does play into this concern that we’ve had for a very long time. The ability to live beyond your means is not sustainable, long term.” – Alex Chausovsky 21:52 – “The question is not so much, ‘How much debt is there?’ but ‘Does the world have an ability to continue to put faith in the US government from repaying the debts that they have?’” – Alex Chausovsky 27:34 – “There will be a day of reckoning and what that day looks like--it’s not a pretty sight.” – Alex Chausovsky 49:25 - “It comes down to faith but also your ability to pay your debts. What would make people lose their faith in [the United States] is if we’re not paying out debts to other countries, essentially.” - Ryan Tansom Resources/Links: LAB Episode 120: 10 Year Economic Forecast, 2019 Downturn, 2030 Depression with Alex Chausovsky ITR Economics, official website Alex Chausovsky, Twitter Alex Chausovsky, LinkedIn Infinite Game by Simon Sinek Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey Ray Dalio, Leadership at Bridgewater, Bio Bridgewater, “Big Debt Crisis,” PDF “Ray Dalio: We are very late in the long-term debt cycle” (Yahoo video) Principles by Ray Dalio Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp! You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, on my LinkedIn, or you can call me at 612-720-6530.

Today, Sara Stern is talking with me today about the family business circle, her experience in family businesses, The Sage Pages, the Matilda Impact, family business statistics and what that means for your business, how ‘fair is not always equal,’ and what successful family businesses have in common. So many businesses (family-owned or not) hit their ceiling because the owner/founder cannot separate their ownership role from their management role. Because so many owners don’t truly understand business valuations and how to identify what their biggest asset is worth, they try and solve interpersonal problems with what is tangible, and they understand… payroll. Salaries become the default mechanism to “treat everyone fairly” or keep the peace. When in reality this can be one of the most toxic mistakes to make. I truly believe conflict can disappear once a business owner understands how companies are valued and have boundaries which clearly define value management roles should be bringing along with the correct pay. This DOES NOT mean that hard conversations will disappear, it just means that the chances of growing a valuable business that lasts generations will increase along with family harmony.   What will you learn in today’s episode: Sara’s background and her experience with business What Sara got from working at Target The three-circle model of family business are: Ownership  Business  Family What the Matilda impact is and how to use it to address the family freeloader Why 90% of first-generation business owners are in all three circles The excuses first-generation owners Why fair is not always equal What the successful family businesses to make it in the 3% of companies that beat the odds and survive three generations How to shift your mindset and reinvent the family business if you are sick of waking up for grandma’s legacy How to work through family conflict and lean into How to break through false assumptions you have about your family and the business How to create a family purpose statement How to review, hire and work with a solid team of advisors and deselect the ones that don’t get it   Main takeaway: Education can solve a lot of problems. There are two ways we hope to help you get clear, get intentional and get going:   1.)    Mastering Your Cash Flow – Video Series How To Build A 13-Week Cash Flow Statement Get clarity on where and how your cash is coming from and being used and then build a plan to manage it wisely. Learn how to build a 13-week cash flow statement from the top CFOs in the marketplace. How to Build And Revise Your 2020/21 Budget And Forecast 2020 and 2021 are most likely not going to look like you thought they did back when you built your budget and forecast. Learn how to model out different scenarios using forecasting best practices. c. Create A Strategic Plan to Grow Company Value Increase the chances you come out of the gates and capitalize on the future opportunities when our new "normal" sets in. Start thinking about how you can create a strategic plan to grow a valuable business that gives you choices.  2.)    Intentional Growth™ Digital Course Because of the current situation, Pat and I are working on a digital video course on the Intentional Growth™ 5 Principles. It will be the best of our material that we have in our 2-day Boot Camps that normally costs 5k for $295. Text the word Intentional to 66866 to get on the waiting list of the digital course. We’ll teach you how to build a valuable company with the end in mind using our 5 Intentional Growth™. In principle #2 - You’ll learn everything about how companies are valued, deal structures and how to calculate net proceeds (this helps if you want to know how much your company is worth, looking to buy a company or eventually want to sell) In principle #3 - You’ll learn how the 5 major exit options (Internal, ESOPs, PE and more) work & the implications of each Principle #4 - you’ll learn how to increase your multiple by derisking your company and building value for the long term build a financial model that ties to your strategic plan and what it takes to grow value for the long term.   About Sara Sara grew up in a family business. She had a short run in corporate America before she decided to dive headfirst into working with family businesses on a daily basis. She started as the director of the Family Business Center at the University of St. Thomas (when she started it has around 20 members and now it has hundreds of members and is an extremely reputable organization here in MN). Sara wanted to take her years of experience helping hundreds of family businesses to the next level so she got her EOS certification, became a trained coach and EOS Implementer™ she has a unique ability to help family businesses. She works exclusively with a limited number of family business leaders who want to maximize the impact they have on their companies, families, and communities. Sara is a fan of time with family, being silly, making the most out of life, and genuinely getting a kick out of the ridiculous. The worst moment in her work life was making french fries so badly at McDonald's that someone drove 20 miles out of their way to return them. The best moments in her career are watching families get what they want from their businesses.   Quotes: “The leader of the business is there to run a great business that meets the needs and expectations of the owner(s).” – Sara Stern “Where the issue comes up is with ‘not-clear leadership’ and ‘not-clear visions’.” – Sara Stern “Fair is not always equal; fair and equal have different definitions depending on what circle you’re in.” – Sara Stern “Fair is NOT equal and it is not equal or healthy inside of the business. You should get paid for the work you do and what the market says you should get paid.” – Sara Stern “Smart owners hire the right people to run a business and that’s not always a family member.” – Sara Stern “If you own a family business, I URGE you to stop solving problems with payroll.” – Ryan Tansom “I’m a raging visionary.” – Ryan Tansom   Resources/Links: Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman The Sage Pages Sara B. Stern, LinkedIn Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp! You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, on my LinkedIn, or you can call me at 612-720-6530.

A huge challenge I see business owners encountering right now is the decisions that need to be made on how to balance the interests of one’s people and culture while also recalibrating their operations and cost structure to potentially a new revenue and profit norm.   Today I’m talking with successful author, speaker, and entrepreneur Chris Meroff. He has built his company, and Private Equity Firm, into a thriving a place of cutting-edge ideas for company culture. Chris shares how he quadrupled his EBITDA as a result of embracing his employees and focusing on ways to release their inner greatness. By optimizing for ways to increase the median employee salary he literally lifted everyone up in the process.    What will you learn in today’s episode: How Chris has more than quadrupled their EBITDA by focusing on his employees and leaders How Chris scales his companies by focusing one KPI – increasing his employee’s median income Why Chris would give up millions instead of laying off 10% of his workforce How to harvest your employees’ greatest gifts and nurture their inner greatness How to abolish the 2 things that can erode profits and employees’ mental states How to unleash your people like never before Culture is the sum of everyone’s world views How to create a company purpose statement and engrain it in your culture How to use the company purpose statement as a line in the sand to make decisions How to create a culture that you can measure and monitor How to align your culture and financials The difference between entrepreneurs who are “hobbyist” and those who are growing an investment   Main Takeaway: We cannot forget that businesses are made up of employees and people. Not only do we have to treat our employees well, but how we treat them and what we do right now (as a business-owner) will impact the future viability of our business. The leaders that are able to maintain the financial health of their business, while also keeping their culture and leaders intact are going to come out of this with a competitive advantage that I don’t think others are going to have. Employee growth, value growth, and the ability to have more options and freedom down the road are all linked to financial and business success. All of that come from a place where you are make clear, intentional decisions about your employees and company.   About Chris: Chris Meroff built his company into a thriving laboratory of cutting-edge ideas for company culture. He wanted people to be seen for who they really are so that they can be fulfilled personally and professionally, either as a leader or an employee. His aim was to show his staff that there's more to their jobs than just giving up time with friends, family, and hobbies. With an emphasis on integrating work and life, Chris proved that the result can be fulfilling and rewarding. Establishing these roots of fulfillment in all of his endeavors became his life’s work. Today, his companies employ over 200 people and all of them are quick to say that the culture there is unlike any other. This unique culture clearly shows that Chris’s Alignment Leadership model of pursuing fulfillment and developing people rather than skills is flourishing. Not just because the financials say so, but because the people themselves do. Chris’s first book, ALIGN was published by Morgan James. His work includes inspiration as well as practical tools to seek fulfillment for employees, leaders, and all those in between. He knows it’s possible for anyone to accomplish because he and his team are consistently achieving their best every single day. Author, speaker, and entrepreneur, Chris Meroff, has made a career of testing new leadership ideas to see what works—and what doesn’t—in service-oriented leadership. What he has gleaned from his research has helped him build a fast-growing organization with a diverse and engaged workforce that understands the mission of his organization and their place in it. His business, Alignment Leadership Consulting, exists to teach leaders how they too can boldly pursue a workplace culture that prioritizes employee fulfillment.   Quotes: “When we see their greatness, we see them for who they are. It has been amazing to watch people evolve into the very people we imagined them to be, from the moment we hired them.” - Chris Meroff “100 years ago, back in the day, when we were doing manufacturing or agriculture; yes, it made sense to be an expert in manufacturing or agriculture. People were plug and play. That made sense 100 years later? No. It’s all about people. Information and knowledge are all a commodity now. Anyone can look anything up” - Chris Meroff “What we’re doing is leveraging our people in ways that people have never been leveraged before.” - Chris Meroff “What is a culture? We define it as the sum of everyone’s world view.” - Chris Meroff “One of the things that we teach at our bootcamp is the difference between ownership and management roles.” - Ryan Tansom   Resources/Links: Chris Meroff Official Website Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp! You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, on my LinkedIn, or you can call me at 612-720-6530.   There are two ways we hope to help you get clear, get intentional, and get going:  1.)    Mastering Your Cash Flow – Video Series How To Build A 13-Week Cash Flow Statement Get clarity on where and how your cash is coming from and being used and then build a plan to manage it wisely. Learn how to build a 13-week cash flow statement from the top CFOs in the marketplace. How to Build And Revise Your 2020/21 Budget And Forecast 2020 and 2021 are most likely not going to look like you thought they did back when you built your budget and forecast. Learn how to model out different scenarios using forecasting best practices. c. Create A Strategic Plan to Grow Company Value Increase the chances you come out of the gates and capitalize on the future opportunities when our new "normal" sets in. Start thinking about how you can create a strategic plan to grow a valuable business that gives you choices.  2.)    Intentional Growth™ Digital Course Because of the current situation, Pat and I are working on a digital video course on the Intentional Growth™ 5 Principles. It will be the best of our material that we have in our 2-day Boot Camps that normally costs 5k for $295. Text the word Intentional to 66866 to get on the waiting list of the digital course. We’ll teach you how to build a valuable company with the end in mind using our 5 Intentional Growth™. In principle #2 - You’ll learn everything about how companies are valued, deal structures and how to calculate net proceeds (this helps if you want to know how much your company is worth, looking to buy a company or eventually want to sell) In principle #3 - You’ll learn how the 5 major exit options (Internal, ESOPs, PE and more) work & the implications of each Principle #4 - you’ll learn how to increase your multiple by derisking your company and building value for the long term build a financial model that ties to your strategic plan and what it takes to grow value for the long term.

Today, more than ever, I have watch businesses of all sizes, industries and locations buckle down to figure out what this new economy means to them, their business and their future cash flow.I've seen companies with millions of EBITDA disappear and entrepreneurs with a few hundred thousand in EBITDA explode with growth. Regardless of what end of the spectrum you are on, getting a handle on what cash is coming in and out the door is crucial. There is a way to get visibility into your cash that helps you get through this storm and also sets you up for success so you can "afford"​​​ to grow at the pace you want... and with the right kind of growth. My business partner Pat Hobby and I will be discussing how the most successful companies master their cash flow by building out forecasts and budgets that align with their strategic plans and revenue targets. ​We talk about the steps you need to do, how to be intentional, make a plan, and come out of this ahead by building a 13-week cash flow statement, revising your budget and forecast and then building a plan for long term value growth.   Some of the things we discuss in today’s episode – How to balance today's storm with your future plans for the business How to build a financial foundation that gives you visibility into your cash flow The key components to a 13-week cash flow statement and why you need one How to use a 13-week cash flow dashboard to work with your stakeholders How to build an annual budget from the ground up How to get visibility into your line of credit usage for the rest of 2020 What you can be doing to revise your sales forecast How to combine your sales forecast with your budget to project your 2020 net income How to avoid decisions that you will regret (like taking on too much business debt) How to set yourself and the company up for value growth and potential acquisitions How to project out your growth and what it is going to cost you (and where you'll get the money) Where to find the Mastering Your Cash Flow Video Series and the new Intentional Growth™ Digital Course Main takeaway We want to help. I hope that the Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course can help get you where you need to be in order to get through this crazy time on top of your game and with a plan. Let’s build a plan to get a solid foundation for you and your business. You’ve got to get going and get intentional right now.   Quotes: “There are very specific things that we can be doing because everybody’s balance sheets are shrinking right now.” - Ryan Tansom “Get clear, get intentional, get growing.” - Ryan Tansom “Don’t just look at topline revenue for the next two or three years. Don’t just blindly grow, blindly take out debt. There are 12 years of that. Quit doing it.” - Ryan Tansom “When this passes--and this will pass--you want to be in a position where you can grow your business.” - Pat Hobby “Getting some clarity on where I’m at today and how I get through the next quarter and the next year, in a way that sets me up for the future is the key.” - Pat Hobby “You should be monitoring your cash flow as a part of an ongoing financial analysis process.” - Pat Hobby    Resources: Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp! You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, on my LinkedIn, or you can call me at 612-720-6530.   Check out the next Intentional Growth™ Boot Camp - Because of the current situation, Pat and I are working on a digital video course on the Intentional Growth™ 5 Principles. It will be the best of the material we have in our 2-day Boot Camps that normally costs 5k for $995. Text the word Intentional to 66866 to get on the waiting list of the digital course. We’ll teach you how to build a valuable company with the end in mind using our 5 Intentional Growth™. In principle #2 - You’ll learn everything about how companies are valued, deal structures and how to calculate net proceeds (this helps if you want to know how much your company is worth, looking to buy a company or eventually want to sell) In principle #3 - You’ll learn how the 5 major exit options (Internal, ESOPs, PE and more) work & the implications of each Principle #4 - you’ll learn how to increase your multiple by derisking your company and building value for the long term build a financial model that ties to your strategic plan and what it takes to grow value for the long term.